Cultural City
- Protect Heritage Resources
- Promote & Enhance Heritage Experiences
- The Role of Programming in Enhancing Culture
- Planning for Public Service Facilities
Our Niagara Falls Plan
The City of Niagara Falls is creating a new Official Plan – a new long-term land use vision to 2051 that guides us through a future of unprecedented growth while providing a high-quality living experience for our residents and our visitors from around the world.
The City engaged a professional planning consultant, The Planning Partnership, in early 2024 to lead the project with a full community engagement program - gathering public input and updating legislative requirements to create a new planning approach and user-friendly document.
Policy Directions Report
The Policy Directions Report outlines a framework for how the City intends to accomplish its planning goals: preparing for growth and planning a community for Niagara Falls through to 2051. The recommended policy directions are built on work completed, including expanding on issues explored in our Discussion papers, supplemented by recent and ongoing changes in the Province’s Planning regime, and responding to feedback received from staff, agencies, interest groups and residents.
The document is structured around key elements to be included in Our Niagara Falls Plan:- A vision for where and how Niagara Falls will grow to the year 2051
- Direction that promotes a framework for sustainable development and accommodating growth
- Direction and guidance on the full range of land use designations
- Guidance on growth management and the provision of services
- The protection and management of the natural environment, agriculture and cultural heritage resources
- The implementation of relevant Regional and Provincial policy directives.
The Policy Directions Report does not include specific policies or detailed mapping, which will be produced through the next Phase of the project – a draft Official Plan.
You can take a look at the:
- draft Policy Directions Report*; and
- an accompanying Discussion Paper #7 – Conformity and Implementation.
*Please contact fberardi@niagarafalls.ca if you would like a digital version of the report. A limited number of paper copies will be available at the Public Information Centre.
If you could not attend our Public Information Session, please feel free to submit your comments to newofficialplan@niagarafalls.ca by February 7, 2025.
Discussion Topics
The discussion papers and topics serve as starting points for conversations about new opportunities, designs, strategies, and policy directions.
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Connected & Mobile City
- Mobility is More than Cars, Trucks & Trains
- What Does a Complete Street Entail?
- First and Last Mile
- Trails
- Street Connectivity
- Connecting the Transportation Network
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Attractive City
- Healthy Communities
- Public Realm Design
- Complete Streets
- Place-Making
- Parks & Open Spaces
- Private Realm
- Urban Design & Sustainability
- Compatibility
- Intensification
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Green & Resilient City
- Protect & Enhance Natural Systems
- Water Resources System
- Climate Change Mitigation & Resilience
- Urban Forest & Tree Preservation
- Innovation & Resiliency
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Growing City
- How & Where to Grow
- Meet Housing Needs as a Growing City
- Future-Proofing with Flexible Policies
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International City
- Position Niagara Falls as a Gateway Economic Zone
- Renew the Niagara Falls Tourist Proposition
- Right-size the City's Retail & Commercial Sector
- Ready Niagara Falls for Economic Opportunities
- Supply of Employment Land
An Official Plan is a document that guides the use of land over the next 20 to 30 years. It will guide where those land uses - like residential, commercial, industrial, and recreational will go and how they will be designed.
It will also identify what type of development can occur and what we need to protect such as our agricultural lands, natural areas, and water resources.
An Official Plan is the City’s key document that describes the goals, objectives and policies that will direct our land use decisions on:
- Where to direct housing, parks, industry, commercial areas and schools;
- How natural areas and heritage resources will be protected;
- How we can prepare for a changing climate;
- How we can support more affordable housing choices;
- What infrastructure and services (roads, water mains, sewers, schools, community facilities) will be needed;
- How to enhance community identity and design; and
- which tools and processes would best help us get there.
The Niagara Region Official Plan anticipates a population of 141,000 by the year 2051 in Niagara Falls, representing an increase of 47,250 people and over 20,000 new housing units in the next 27 years. Additionally, the Region's Official Plan targets over 17,000 new jobs within the City by 2051.
Our Niagara Falls Plan is needed to incorporate sound policies that will properly guide this exponential growth while fostering an attractive and livable city.
Our goal is to make sure our plans reflect the needs of our community both now and in the future.
Whether you are a long-term resident or a new one, a business owner or an employee in the City, tell us what you like about Niagara Falls and what you think is needed to make it better. This is a Plan to 2051 – you’re never too old or too young to have a vision for our City’s future!
Throughout the project, the City will engage with residents, stakeholders, businesses, Indigenous communities and decision-makers to shape the vision objectives and direction of the new Official Plan.
Let’s work together to create a plan that meets the needs of our current and future community!
Commonly Asked Questions
We will update this regularly as we collect more questions.
Our Niagara Falls Plan influences where you live, work and play. It impacts the urban form, housing options, connectivity, and the overall quality of life in our City.
Our Niagara Falls Plan will conform with the upper tier policies of the Region of Niagara Official Plan, and Provincial Plans such as the Growth Plan and Greenbelt Plan. It will also be consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement which is issued under the Planning Act.
Under Provincial Planning legislation, all Official Plan amendment applications must be considered under the Plan that is in effect at the time of complete application.
That means that any application that is currently underway or that is submitted to the City prior to the final approval of the Our Niagara Falls Plan must be considered under the policies of our current Official Plan and cannot be dealt with through this new official plan process.
Our Niagara Falls Plan will create general policies that apply to the whole of the City. It is not the purpose of this project to consider land use designation changes to individual properties. Those should be considered on a site specific basis.
